


Dealer's Choice

by tanyart



Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Ace of Spades Quest spoilers, Character Study, Gen, Pre-Canon, Vanguard Dare
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-26
Updated: 2018-10-26
Packaged: 2019-08-08 03:06:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16421186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tanyart/pseuds/tanyart
Summary: Shiro has always known there wasn't going to be any cache waiting for him when Cayde died.





	Dealer's Choice

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers for the Ace of Spades quest, and the Lore Book: [The Man They Call Cayde](https://www.ishtar-collective.net/categories/book-the-man-they-call-cayde).

In the wake of Andal’s send off, Cayde’s hasty inauguration into the Vanguard, the flurry of objections from the Consensus, Shiro-4 was surprised to find himself in the quiet of one of the Tower’s offices. It was meant to be Cayde’s, an empty gesture to signify that he really _was_ the new Vanguard. Shiro had to stare at the room in disbelief. As if a Hunter would lower themselves to being shut in a room to do paperwork.

But here he was, locked behind doors with Cayde while the rest of the Tower buzzed with activity. The sudden jump into silence was jarring, nothing like the feeling of peace. It made Shiro uneasy, being dropped into stillness and calm. 

He hadn’t had a moment alone with Cayde in a long time. Too busy, too chaotic to try and get a word in. Cayde had been on a—well, _warpath_ wasn’t the right word for it, not with Taniks still out there killing Guardians, but he was driving towards something Shiro couldn’t put his finger on. 

And _that_ worried him.

Cayde’s decision to take up the Vanguard gig didn’t come as a shock. Shiro knew about the bet with Andal. It was the way Cayde approached the whole damn thing—it wasn’t like another one of his manic split-second plans, all charisma and cockiness and that sideways belief in luck. He wasn’t calm either—never truly was, always restless like his solar flames—but Cayde was strangely methodical about it. Announced his intent to step up, went through all the right channels, played _nice_ with the Consensus. Well, as nice as he could be, with the guys in New Monarchy and Future War Cult.

It seemed like Cayde was setting himself up for different type of game, a damn long one, one that Shiro wasn’t familiar with. It unnerved the hell out of him.

But for all that, Shiro did what he was getting to be good at—he stood back, watched, kept out of the way. It might have been coincidence that lead him to be alone in a room with Cayde, but Shiro didn’t have much faith in coincidences. Not as much nowadays. 

“What’s the deal, boss?” Shiro finally said, leaning one shoulder against the back wall. 

Cayde was moving stuff around. Datapads. Weapons. Old fashioned paper maps. Setting up shop in his new space. Like the office itself, most of it was for show, a decoy for anyone who came poking around the Tower. Some of it was Andal’s trinkets, junk passed down. 

Cayde glanced up. His new cloak shifted over his arm and he twitched it aside. For a moment it could have been Andal staring back at Shiro; hands resting over the desk, shoulders set, gaze bright and sharp. Cayde tugged the side of the hood, setting the crease like how Andal would’ve done.

Funny how it never bothered Shiro any. Cayde was always picking up habits from Andal. The cloak was just one more thing. Maybe it’d be the last thing.

“‘Boss’? Ugh, don’t you start that crap now, Shiro,” Cayde said. “I already hate all this bureaucratic shit, no need to rub it in my face.”

It was hard to see Cayde as the new Vanguard. Then again, Shiro had thought the same about Andal, back when they had pushed him to it. Maybe it was one of those things that grew into you, made you start thinking in different ways that couldn’t— _wouldn’t_ —revolve around you.

“That new guy Hideo giving you grief?” Shiro asked. He had an eye on the New Monarchy representative. Ambitious man. Used to be that Shiro didn’t give two fucks about whatever the Consensus was arguing about. These days, he paid a little more attention.

“Like you wouldn’t _believe_ ,” Cayde groaned, and launched into one of his rants, complaining. “Did you know, I sat in one of their meetings the other day. A whole _four_ hours-” 

Venting. Andal had done the same, with a little more censure. Cayde hadn’t been quite as sympathetic at the time, but that’s the thing about being someone’s protégé. Shiro didn’t have to make the same mistakes.

So Shiro listened to Cayde bitch and moan for a time, filing away the sly hints Cayde dropped in their old code. Future cache grabs. Upcoming high-profile missions to get a head start on. They still played this game, too.

Problem was, there was only the two of them now. Shiro was sure he could rustle up a new crew easy, but he hadn’t the inclination for years now.

After a while, he approached the desk, resting his hip against the edge. One of the maps on Cayde’s desk was of Titan. The markings didn’t mean shit to Shiro, but he pretended to be curious. He glanced down then back up, and casually as he did, he asked, “So, what’s your Dare, Cayde?”

Cayde waved a hand, dismissive. But he laughed, which meant he had one. Probably had it since the day he and Andal made the original bet between them. Cayde was arrogant, sure, but coming up with a Vanguard Dare seemed like the kind of masochistic daydream most Hunters liked to do in their spare time. 

Cayde snickered again, and it took Shiro a moment to realize wasn’t laughing about any Dare. Cayde was laughing at _him_.

“I know what you’re up to, Shiro-4, and I ain’t liking it a bit.”

Shiro folded his arms, looked down at him, and decided to go for it. “What am I up to?”

Cayde leaned back in his chair, spinning around once as he spoke. “Eh, it’s not that I don’t think you _can_ do it. Hell, you’d be a fuckin’ fine Vanguard, probably.” He stopped, elbows setting back on top of the desk. He pointed a finger at Shiro, accusing. “I’ve thought about it. You’d break tradition. We just can’t have a good Hunter Vanguard that’s gonna last more than decade.”

Cayde going on one of his tangents was unbearable this time around. Shiro felt the past few weeks drop like a weight on his shoulders. Standing back, watching, keeping out of the way—he was dutiful, but not in the way he wanted to be. 

Shiro repeated himself, voice going flat; “ _What’s your Dare, Cayde_.”

“I’m gettin’ to it, I’m gettin’ to it. Gotta hear my disclaimers first, alright? Listen kid, it’s not a cut on you. You can do it, probably. But you won’t, and that’s not really a bad thing. Actually, I’m really, really banking on you not being able to do it—”

Shiro could feel static in the air, the faint popping from the arc energy seeping out from his lighted mouth. He reeled it in, forcibly dimmed in, but there were still crackling sparks in the words as he raised his voice.

“Cayde, quit it. If you don’t tell me, I’m gonna-”

“You’ll what? Kill me?” Cayde interrupted—and it wasn’t what Shiro was going to say, not by a longshot—but the shift in Cayde’s jaw made his grin all the more smug. “Got it in one. Always knew you were smart as hell, Shiro.”

Silence. Shiro went still. It took a moment to process that Cayde had _actually_ outplayed him, deliberately from the start, and another moment to realize that Cayde was right. He couldn’t do it. Would never do it. And Shiro _knew_ his way around killing other Guardians. 

“Aw, c’mon, Shiro. Don’t give me that look. I had to. Can’t have you trying to steal away my brand new job. Do you even _want_ to be Vanguard, or are you just feeling sorry for your good ol’ mentor pal? My glimmer’s on the latter. No offense, but you’re an easy read, kiddo.”

Now it was easy to feel less shocked and more insulted. Shiro glanced up at the ceiling. “ _‘Feeling sorry’_ is stretching it.”

“Traveler’s honest truth, I wouldn’t dream of putting you in that position, kid. Thing is, I trust you. I trust you not to go off running on some fool mission to get yourself killed.”

Shiro knew they were both thinking of Lush, and Andal. Their old crew. When were they ever not, anyway. “Hard lessons, yeah. But I’ve learned them. Not sure if you did.”

Cayde flashed him another grin, the paper map wrinkling under his moving arm. “A Hunter who’s learned how to heel and play smart is a damn rare thing, Shiro. Would hate to lose a good scout to some desk job. And _that’s_ my spiel why you can’t be Vanguard, even after I call it quits.”

Shiro stared at him, still stormy. Cayde had a point, and a very flattering way of making it. Shiro knew it was calculated. Ah, another one of Andal’s tricks. They just never stopped. He made one last jab, feeling particularly childish. “It’s a stupid Dare, Cayde.”

“Is it? I’ve got some stipulations, in case a non-Hunter kills me. I didn’t make it just to spite you, you know.”

Seeing as Shiro wasn’t going to press for an argument, Cayde leaned back. He gestured Sundance back into corporeal form, her twinkling eye turned to Shiro. 

“Alright, so here’s the skinny,” Cayde continued, in a way that suggested he definitely wasn’t going to reveal those stipulations. Sundance transferred a couple of reports over to Shiro’s ghost. Done and done; moving on, back to business. “Need someone hanging with Saladin for a bit. Old geezer’s one of them Guardians who think they can fly solo. Saladin don’t like me too much, but you’re pretty inoffensive, as far as us Hunters go. Play nice with the guy. Help him out. Watch him. I got both by hands full with...” He waved a vague hand around the office. “All this.”

Shiro scanned the reports. Tail the Iron Lord, keep an eye on the House of Devils on the side. Easy enough. Everything was crystal clear in his mind, and when he looked back at Cayde, it was almost like pulling one of their heists again. Almost, except everything was different now.

“Fine,” Shiro said, still smarting, still insulted and hurt, even when Cayde awkwardly replied with ‘ _Be brave_ ’, the standard Vanguard dismissal, which only drove the point further in.

Shiro turned to leave, but he couldn’t help but wonder, if he really did go for Cayde’s throat—

It would’ve been a brutal fight. But he knew the way Cayde liked to favor his right side for his firing arm, use his left hand for a knife, but always went for his gun first. Cayde kept a tripmine grenade at his right side, loose hooks at his belt make for grabbing points. The unfamiliar weight of a new cloak would throw him off-kilter, too. And Cayde was excitable. Dramatic. Flashy. All weaknesses if you knew how to trigger it, and Shiro was sure he could figure it out.

But then what would be the point, if he did?

Shiro paused. “You sure you don’t think I’ll kill you?”

Cayde looked at Shiro. Really _looked_ at him this time, thoughtful. His finger tapped against the map, a point on Titan that Shiro didn’t bother to figure out what it could’ve meant.

“‘Course. I’m betting my life on it, aren’t I?”

Shiro smiled, wry, before he turned away to leave. “Be brave, Vanguard.”

“Ah,” Cayde said, sounding just a little bit surprised. “Thanks.”


End file.
